Manuski means humanism in Marathi. A term used by Dr B.R.Ambedkar, a great humanist of India. This blog want stimulating debate without any prejudices of caste, religion and nationalism. It is about humanism and human rights. All freethinkers are welcome to contribute and participate in stimulating debates.

Friday, April 25, 2014

Democracy as legitimization of Jat terror in Haryana

Dalits of Bhagana village seek justice for rape victims

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

Rape as an instrument of caste
dominance

On March 23rd when
India remembers one of its greatest sons Bhagat Singh for his supreme sacrifice
for the nation, in Haryana (unfortunately it was part of undivided Pepsu
province when Bhagat Singh was executed) four Dalit girls belonging to Dhanak
community were abducted from their village by five Jat boys of the same village
at 8 in the evening. The girls were going out to fetch water in the evening and
they would a white colored car rushing towards them and grabbed them inside the
car. All four lost consciousness after getting drugged and raped. Next morning
they found themselves at Bhatinda Railway station in neighboring Punjab State
in utterly humiliating conditions but they were helpless as they did not know
any one and had nothing with them.

The Sarpanch of the village was
aware of the incident and was waiting for the families to contact him for
‘help’. After the families got intimation of the disappearance of the girls,
all in their teens, the villagers went to the Sarpanch Rakesh who ‘assured’
them that all the girls would return their home by next day. The parents of the
girls asked him to help otherwise they would file an FIR in the police station
but he was just not ready to help them. Finally, when the villagers and parents
of the girls threatened that they were going to lodge the FIR against the
disappearance of the girls that the Sarpanch Rakesh and his uncle Virendra
informed them that all the girls were at Bhatinda Railway station in Punjab
which was about 170 kilometer away from their place. Sarpanch Rakesh
accompanied with his uncle Virendra and others left in a car towards Bhatinda
and found the girls exactly at the place where the Sarpanch had mentioned to
them which clearly indicate that he had known everything in advance. They were
terrified and in very bad shape. Immediately, they returned to their home. On
their way back home, the Sarpanch stopped the vehicle in Hisar for a ‘tea
break’ and put the girls in a room on the first floor. After some time, he went
up in the rooms of these girls and threatened them with dire consequences if
they speak anything about the incident.

An Administration with caste
loyalties

The girls narrated the nightmare
to their family persons who decided to go for a medical test of them and fight
back. The Jats knew it well that hurting an Indian woman is easier as she would
not go for the medical test but these girls have shown extraordinary courage to
get justice. The medical test was done at Civil Hospital, Hisar on March 25th.
The callous and crude attitude of the doctors at the hospital was visible when
they should have taken utmost care of the girls and their families, they were
not attended. The families of these children who are in their teens actually
reached the Civil hospital by 10 am but the by 1130 pm only one girl could be
‘officially’ ‘checked’. The parents blamed the Superintendent of Police Manisha
Chaudhury for not supporting them and threatened them. Strange but true that in
India your gender does not matter but your caste identities more than that. The
entire ‘medical’ process was completed by mid-night at 1.30 am. No effort was
made by the authorities to assure the families of justice. Instead they were
asked not to report till last moment. At 2.30 am in the night the SSP Manisha
Chaudhury took them for ‘statement’ in front of the ‘judicial magistrate’ under
section 164. They were let off after that in mid night when it was raining
heavily.

I have seen the documents.
Both the FIR and the medical reports are written carelessly. The doctor’s reports
are written in highly ‘medical’ language. Poor people may not know what has
happened and what has the doctor said in the report. By the time, they come to
know, the time is lost. Most of the cases in India have collapsed in the court
of law due to negligence by the police and medical authorities. It is not just
negligence but purely caste prejudices. It is shameful when India’s women’s
movement was trying to hoodwink us that ‘women’ have no castes, the fact is
caste and religious identities are more powerful in India than being a ‘woman’
identity and Haryana’s Dalit women have not got that much support from Indian
middle classes, women’s movement who were shouting loud at top of their voices
after December 16th. It became a pilgrimage for everyone to refer to
us about their relations with the ‘movement’ which was purely casteist and
communal. Why the nation does not show same kind of restlessness for mass rapes
due to caste and communal violence? Is it because the victims are Dalits,
Aadivasis and Minorities?

In the meanwhile the victims of
Bhagana returned to mini secretariat in Hissar after recording their statement
as they were neither in a position to return home nor are they willing to go
back there now. There was no consolation, no show of strength by a lady
officer. Rather, they were scolded and rebuked. Over 200 villagers have been
protesting in the mini secretariat in Hissar for the past two years for the
economic social boycott imposed by the Jats on them. The fact is that it was
the aim of the Jats to throw the entire community away from the village. The police and administration ultimately
filed an FIR on March 25th in the evening but the police did not
name the Sarpanch Rakesh and his uncle Virendra in it who are actually the
masterminds of the entire operation. Where are our anti rape laws which we have
been so powerfully speaking about?

Bhgana’s Dalit families had
marched to Delhi last year as on May 21st 2012 they have been thrown
away from their village. In the hot summer they came bare-chested when the Jats
of the village had imposed an economic sanction on them. It was clear that the
Jats were not very happy with the growing assertion and ‘happiness’ of the
Dalits. They were cheated first as Rs 1000/- was collected from them in the
name of land allotment but that never happened. Huge village land is available
in Haryana everywhere but the Jats are forcing the government not to distribute
it to the Dalits particularly to the Dhanuks and Balmikis. When the Chudhas,
Dhanuks, Dhedhs (all the most marginalized Dalit communities) raised question
about their land rights, the Jats threatened with the same consequences like
some other communities like Chamars and Kumhars.

Shockingly, the Haryana
government of Bhupendra Singh Hooda filed a case of sedition against one of the
activist fighting for the rights of the Dalits. It happened with the Dalits
were protesting against the callousness of the administration and burnt the
effigies of the chief minister. Rather than compensating the Dalits the
government and political parties across the spectrum have not taken care of
their issues. Dalits are not allowed to visit the temples too if they wish to.
Bhagana village’s incident is not alone, the Jats and their Khaps are a threat
to very essence of democracy. Now the Khaps of over 58 villages have asked
government not to distribute village communal land to Dalits. Actually, the
real cause of tension between the Jats and the Dalits is the war between them
for the land rights. The land reform have absolutely been failed by the
powerful peasantry in India and in the Jat heartland of Haryana and Western
Uttar Pradesh as well as Rajasthan. The Dalits have been demanding their land
rights for years but the Jat resistance is so powerful that no political party
is ready to take up the issue for them.

The Dalits of village Bhagana
have been on a protest sitting at the Mini Secretariat for over two years and
now the police is forcibly evicting them.
They came to Delhi and sat on Jantar Mantar in the hope that something
would materialize but nothing happened. Now this atrocious and heinous crime
against Dalit women in Haryana and things are not moving.

Haryana is a classic case of
how Indian democracy function and how India really remained unchanged as far as
social structure is concerned in our villages. A story very similar to other
‘progressive states’ such as Gujarat, Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh where such
kind of economic and social boycott have been a tool in the hands of powerful
peasantry to demolish and crush the very identity and dignity of the people.

While the Dalits who remain at
the receiving end in Haryana and elsewhere at the hands of Jaats have got
nothing but powerful Jaats have been given OBC status. It is shameful that such
a powerful and landed community is given such a status which is a clear
violation of basic decency of political life. Jats have never considered them
as OBC and always took pride in their being Aryan Jamindars, a term which
others may not like.

Jantar Mantar’s irony

At the Jantar Mantar, I speak to
Jagdish, a young Dalit activist and other elders from village Bhagana who are
sitting on the protest from April 16th. The young girls and their
parents are there. Most of them are covered. How a tragic that those who commit
crime walks openly while those who are victimized have to hide their faces. No
police protection, no compensation, no assurances so far. The pain and anger is
visible in their eyes as they are fed up with preaching and assurances by ‘leaders’.
An old man walks in and begins the conversation in a very ‘informed’ way. ‘You
should do ‘this,’ ‘that’ and involve activists, people, media’ in your efforts.
‘You must fight’, he says. This is the battle of dignity of women of India. By
this time Jagdish loses his temper, ‘Who are you’, he asks. The old man replies that he was part of
December 16th ‘revolution’. It was disgusting to see such idiotic
brahmanical mannerism when we all know that the incidents in Haryana need more
serious attention of the nation. Jagdish cry at him,’ Yes, Nirbhaya was an
upper caste girl so you have pain for her sufferings but what about our sisters
who face this humiliation at daily level in Haryana? Where are the people? We
are Hindus when you need our vote but Dhanuks when we want to fetch water from
the well and where is the media? Why don’t they come and support. Kejriwal
belong to Hisar but did not even bother to visit them despite of the fact that
we met him once and he absolutely had no assurances for us. No political party
including BSP has shown any interest on this issue in these times of politics.
Now, some of his colleagues even defended Khap Panchayats even knowing the fact
that they have only one meaning in Haryana which is denigrate and humiliate
Dalits at all cost. It is not just inter- caste marriages which is being
opposed by these Khapists, they have become law unto themselves. Now they are
challenging the very essence of being a Dalit. They do not want them to be in
their village. If you have to live in the village work as labours and slaves
where anything could happen to you and state apparatus would not do anything.
The writ of Indian constitution does not work there. Jantar Mantar gives us
false hope as it only listens to the brahmanical lies and not to the pains and
agony of the Dalits. Jantar Mantar keeps us under the wrong impression that
this country is a ‘secular socialist democratic republic’ where we have allowed
protests but have we resolved those issues?

Yesterday some students of JNU
protested in front of Haryana Bhavan. They will protest for a few more days. We
all will get tired with it. We will start thinking them as burden. The state
has this habit of making them burden by delaying things so after some time the
victim accuse those who stand with them as things do not move accordingly.

Internationalize the issue:

Where do we go? India’s
parliamentary democracy has failed Dalits. It has given some of them political representation and
some more government jobs, much lower than their actual percentage but it has
only tried to coopt them into the structure and did not give them right to live
on their own conditions. The National Human Rights Commission, The National
Commission for Women, The National Commission for Schedule Castes and the
National Commission for Safai Karmcharis, all are autonomous bodies but look
helplessand are like any other ‘sarkari’ department. Their working pattern
is similar to other government agencies and hence do not really give us hope
though for small cases they can do wonders. The state of India is helpless
to the Manuwadis violent gangs in the name of social identities. Harayana is
India’s biggest scandal not in terms of land dealings but in terms of social
chaos and politics of dominance. International agencies, human rights bodies
must act. It is time to question India on all the international forums for its
inability to implement rule of law in Haryana. The Dalits in Haryana have
not got justice. Dalits have not got justice elsewhere. You count any massacre
in India of Dalits where they have got justice? The Andhra Pradesh High Court
has released all the accused of the Tsunduru violence which was one of the
worst massacre of Dalits in Andhra Pradesh. Lakshmanpur Bathe and Bathani Tola
in Bihar, Kumher in Rajasthan, caste victims of Dharmapuri, Bant Singh in
Punjab etc have got no justice so far. It look justice eludes Dalits in India.

India’s integrity is at stake?
India’s constitution is at stake. There is no point celebrating these fake
‘dramas’ of ‘democracy’ when we do not allow our people to live in dignity. It
is disgusting, shameful and unbearable. I am writing India because Indian governments
look helpless the powerful Jat lobby. It is not the question of which
government comes to power in Delhi. Question is whether the Dalits in the
villages will have right to live with dignity in their villages. Haryana’s
Dalits are seeking the answers from Indian state. It is time the institutions
of Indian state function and provides justice to these girls of Dalit community
who have become victim of the tyranny of the arrogant upper castes who are
roaring for a new set of government which could be anti Dalits. It is the same
tyrannical caste which played havoc in Mujaffarnagar and got scot free. It is
time to implement the constitution of India in the Jat land otherwise no point
in boasting your power of a mighty nation when the original inhabitant of India
cannot live in their own country with dignity and respect.

Followers

About Me

Learning through working. Working at the grassroots made me realise the big difference between those who claim to represent communities as well as the communities themselves. Common man is crushed between the ambitions of various individuals to lead and dominate. The dominant and high numbered communities will always dominate our discourse and the most marginalised are losing in this entire discourse. That is the reason why Mushahar remain at the marginalised and the issue of manual scavenging still not on our top agenda and to eliminate that the community has to decide its own organisations..

I am devoted to freedom of ideas and expression. I personally feel that we in the subcontinent want to dominate and control our discourse and each one of is a ultra nationalist in terms of their caste and community. Nationalism is not just national and political but it is equally in term of religion and caste. I feel each kind of nationalism is a dominant discourse which deny the dissenter a right to speak.

At the end, we all want to listen the truth suitable to us.. we have become expertised in the art of speaking truth of convenience. As long as that remain hall mark of our society and we speak to already converts, this society will remain stagnant, it will always try to control our ideas and choices. We need to oppose any such perception, ideas that want to control our mind and victimise us.

To understand India further, I feel, it is good to do foot walk, ( Padyatras) to various parts of the country. I have so far done it thrice covering nearly 1500-2000 kilometers. It is always interesting to see how people are coping their issues and what is the reason of their exploitation.